Endocytosis frustration potentiates compression-induced receptor signaling

Abstract

Cells experience mechanical stresses in different physiological and pathological settings. Clathrin-coated structures (CCSs) are sensitive to such perturbations in a way that often results in a mechanical impairment of their capacity to bud, ultimately impairing endocytosis. Compressive stress is a particular mechanical perturbation that leads to increased membrane tension and promotes proliferative signals. Here, we report that compression leads to CCSs frustration and that CCSs are required to potentiate receptor-mediated signaling in these conditions. We first confirmed that pressure stalls CCSs dynamics and showed that it also slows down the dynamic exchange of CCSs building blocks. As previously reported, compression-induced paracrine activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was the primary cause of ERK activation in these conditions. We observed that the EGFR was efficiently recruited at CCSs upon compression and that CCSs were required for full ERK activation. In addition, we demonstrated that compression-induced frustrated CCSs could also serve as signaling platforms for the hepatocyte growth factor receptor (HGFR), provided HGF was present in the medium. We thus propose that, besides the particular case of EGFR paracrine activation, CCS frustration resulting from mechanical perturbations can potentiate signaling through different receptors with potential important consequences on cell adaptation to its environment.